Is Luxembourg the world's unfriendliest country for tourists?

Mark Wolters, a travel vlogger from the United States with over 1 million subscribers on his YouTube channel Wolters World, listed Luxembourg as the most unfriendly country he has travelled to, citing the lack of service and friendliness in stores and restaurants. The video received 1.4 million views in just four months.

About Luxembourg, Wolters says: "They get paid really well. They have a nice place to live. They have good stuff there, they have plenty of money. They don't care about you. They don't care about helping you. Because you don't matter, they're fine. 'You're coming to Luxembourg, so you should be thanking us for letting you come here.' That's the vibe you get sometimes at the restaurants, the bars, the tourist spots. It’s a little frustrating."

Of course Wolters' opinion is just that of one person, but viewers have praised Wolters for his travel videos, giving honest advice and sharing his personal experience with the countries and places he's visited. RTL Today reached out to him for an interview, and he was happy to speak to us about his experiences in the Grand Duchy and travel in general.

"First of all, let me start off by saying that I really enjoy coming to Luxembourg and would come again. We have friends who live there and we’ve been there several times," Wolters says over the phone. He has visited between 80 and 90 countries so far, and at some point even considered moving to Luxembourg, before eventually settling in Brazil.

"I think Luxembourg is a mysterious place for Americans visiting. Their trips usually tend to be more about Cologne or France, they're not sure what to expect here."

Before the pandemic, Wolters travelled six months per year, combining this with teaching marketing at a university. His family of four has worked, studied and lived around the world, and with his YouTube channel and blog he hopes to share some of the mistakes, adventures, tips and advice with other travellers.

Luxembourg's big pain point according to Wolters is that staff tend to ignore customers in stores. The language barrier could not have been an issue, as Wolters speaks French and German. But in his experience, store after store people are ignoring their clients and looking the other away. "I get this feeling of: I have other things to do, why are you bothering me", he says. "At one point, my children asked me whether we had done anything to upset the store owners."

In comparison, shop employees in Germany are super professional, according to Wolters: "They leave you alone until you ask for help.

"I enjoyed myself in Luxembourg, but after going through the list of places I've been to, for me and my family, this is the most unfriendly country. But don't worry, there's plenty of friendly people in those countries too!"

Wolters said he really enjoyed the cleanliness of Luxembourg, especially coming from France, as well as the sites and environment of the capital and country.

Some viewers of the video commented that northern Europeans tend to be quite reserved, with a "get on with their own lives" attitude. Could this say more about American culture towards service and friendliness than European?

"We get the most hate for our tipping culture. In the US we pay the minimum wage and they need the tips to pay their rent. Culture is different. People are generally very friendly and we want people to be happy. The customer is always important. Is the food OK? Can I fix this problem?" This is not a feeling he felt in Luxembourg. On the other hand, people in Luxembourg could perceive the American service culture as fake instead of straightforward.

RTL Today also asked the globetrotter about his culinary experience in the country: "We ate mostly French food because my friend was French. What I'd say to tourists in the capital is: Don't expect to find much Luxembourgish cuisine. It's mostly French or international."

Belgium and Denmark amongst other EU unfriendly countries

Wolters, who is also a professor of marketing at a university, has taken his students on trips to Europe. Among the other top five unfriendly countries was neighbouring Belgium: "Overall, the Belgians themselves are not always the most friendly people and if you are of African or Asian descent, it's the only country I've gone to in Europe with my students where we had racist attacks on my students." Unfortunately, many foreigners are dealing with racism in Luxembourg too.

He also listed Denmark as unfriendly with Danish people being "distant", however he does recall fun times partying with Danes. The other two countries included Argentina, with a clear discrepancy between the capital and rural areas, and China, where things got unfriendly in large groups of people.

So what is Wolters' top travel tip? Rwanda. Frequently only considered a stopover to the final destination, Wolters says locals were super enthusiastic to see tourists and were all very inviting and friendly. The streets were clean, he felt safe, and it's one of the best places to be a vegetarian, according to the travel expert.